A toilet is a standard fixture of indoor plumbing. A toilet is connected to a source of water and is mounted over a floor drain. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a toilet is secured in position on the floor with two toilet bolts (sometimes known as T-bolts because of the shape of their heads) that extend upwardly from a closet flange at the mouth of the drain. The toilet contains oblong holes in its base that are placed over the bolts. The term “oblong” is used herein to refer to an elongated shape in which one dimension is greater than a perpendicular dimension. Washers and nuts are then inserted onto the bolts and tightened.
Exposed nuts and bolts are unsightly so they are typically hidden with a porcelain or plastic cover. As shown in FIG. 2, common practice is to use a cover consisting of a flat base that is placed onto the bolt under the washer and nut, and a cap that fits over the bolt and snaps onto the base. Toilet bolts are generally about 60 mm (about two and one-half inches) long to accommodate varying thicknesses of toilet bases and varying thicknesses of flooring. In many installations, the bolt is much longer than needed. In other words, the bolt extends above the toilet base by more than about 10 to 15 mm. Conventional bolt caps are not deep enough to fit over such a long bolt. As a result, it is frequently necessary to cut off the end of the bolt so that the cap will cover it and snap onto the disk. Cutting off the end of the bolt is a time-consuming and difficult procedure. Furthermore, if a different toilet with a thicker base is installed later, or if a thicker floor covering is added later, the cut-off bolt may not be long enough to attach a nut.
A variety of toilet bolt covers have been disclosed. Bosler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,427, Mar. 22, 1966, Isaacs, U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,823, Aug. 31, 1971, and Fraleigh, U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,986, Mar. 2, 2004, disclose toilet bolt caps that have internal receptacles for mating with the toilet bolt. These bolt caps do not contain a base and therefore do not form an effective seal around the bolt, nut, and washer. Tooman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,350, issued Oct. 26, 2004, disclose deep bolt caps that are installed on anchor bolts by pounding onto the nut and are held in place frictionally. The Tooman et al. caps also lack a base.
Cabiran, U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,683, Apr. 25, 2000, and Fraleigh, U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,479, Oct. 3, 2000, disclose bolt covers having caps with internal threads that mate with a base having external threads. The bases are relatively thick and the nut sits above all the threads. Accordingly, the base can be used only with bolts that extend relatively far above the toilet base. Furthermore, there is no means for preventing the base from rotating. Accordingly, removing the cap may be very difficult because the base tends to rotate with the cap.
Accordingly, there is a demand for an improved toilet bolt cover. More particularly, there is a demand for a toilet bolt cover that completely and securely seals the end of the toilet bolt, the nut, and the washer, that accommodates toilet bolts of varying lengths, and that is easily installed and easily removed.